Santa Teresa vs Nosara: which is better for groups?

Santa Teresa and Nosara are the two most talked-about beach towns on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula, and groups planning a trip almost always end up choosing between them. Both have great surf, gorgeous beaches and a wellness-meets-barefoot-luxury reputation. But they have different personalities — and for a large group, those differences matter. Here's an honest comparison to help you decide.

The quick answer

If your group wants a livelier scene, a wider choice of restaurants and bars, surf for mixed abilities and an easy walkable town, Santa Teresa tends to win. If your priority is quiet, a strong yoga-and-wellness focus, and a more spread-out, residential feel, Nosara may suit you better. Neither is "wrong" — it comes down to what your group is after.

Vibe and scene

Santa Teresa is the more energetic of the two. The town strings along the beach road, so restaurants, surf shops, juice bars and sunset spots are mostly within walking or short-shuttle distance of one another. Evenings have a buzz; there's always somewhere for the group to land. It manages to feel social without being a party town.

Nosara is calmer and more dispersed. Guiones, its main beach area, is set back behind a protected forest, which keeps it leafy and low-key but also means more driving between your accommodation, the beach and dinner. It has a devoted yoga and wellness crowd and a quieter, more meditative rhythm. For some groups that's the dream; for others it can feel sleepy.

Surf

Both deliver excellent, consistent surf. Nosara's Playa Guiones is famous for being beginner-friendly — a long, sandy beach break that's forgiving for learners. Santa Teresa offers a similar entry point at Playa Carmen but with more variety nearby, stepping up to punchier beach breaks at Santa Teresa and longer rides at Hermosa. For a group with a spread of abilities, Santa Teresa's range within a short distance is a practical advantage.

Dining and groceries

For its size, Santa Teresa eats exceptionally well — beachfront seafood, wood-fired pizza, acclaimed open-kitchen restaurants and plenty of casual options, mostly close together. That density makes feeding a group of twelve much easier; you can walk somewhere different every night. Nosara has excellent restaurants too, particularly healthy and organic ones, but they're more spread out, so you'll rely on cars to get around.

Getting there

The two are roughly comparable to reach, both involving either a domestic flight or a drive-and-ferry from San José. Nosara has its own small airstrip; Santa Teresa is typically reached via the Tambor airstrip plus a short transfer, or the Puntarenas–Paquera ferry. Either way, a group is far better off pre-arranging transfers than improvising on arrival.

Large-group accommodation

This is where the comparison gets practical. Both towns have plenty of small guesthouses and a fair number of mid-size rentals, but genuine villas that comfortably sleep twelve under one roof are rare in either place. Many group listings are really multiple units booked together, which splits the group and complicates the trip. If keeping everyone in a single home is important to you — and for most groups it should be — you'll want to filter hard, as we cover in our guide to finding a villa that truly sleeps twelve.

So which should your group choose?

For most large groups, we'd nudge towards Santa Teresa: the walkable town, the variety of surf for mixed abilities, and the density of restaurants simply make a twelve-person trip easier and more fun. Nosara is the better call if your group is specifically after a quiet wellness retreat and doesn't mind driving between everything.

It helps that Santa Teresa is home to Tanit Villa — a 700 m² estate that sleeps twelve across five en-suite suites, ten minutes from the beach, with the 18-metre pool, gardens and full-service team that make group travel effortless. It's the rare single home built for a group of this size, which is exactly the thing that's hardest to find on the peninsula. You can read more about what we offer groups and events, or simply get in touch with your dates.

A stunning location overlooking the ocean, but set back enough to enjoy the private villa experience.